A Writer’s Journal

Hop on over to Affairs of the Pen, where I talk about the importance of friendship in the series.

Yesterday was a cold, chilly day. I got some work done, got some reading done. I thoroughly enjoyed THE WILD WAYS by Tanya Huff. I’m reading the fifth book in Lauren Dane’s Goddess of the Blade series (in preparation for Book 6 coming out in December).

Got some writing done, but, as usual, not enough. Hoping to do a big writing push along with a big clearing out boxes from the basement push this weekend.

Watched AVENGERS: ENDGAME last night. It didn’t do it for me. I’m glad people like it, but there’s not enough character development and too many prolonged fight sequences for me. There were some good moments between actors, but overall, it just didn’t do it for me. I respect everything the actors and creators have done with the world. I know there will be more movies. I’m looking for something else right now, that’s all.

Overslept this morning, and had to rush out of the house to get the oil change done on the car. Female mechanics, everything done easy-peasy, best experience I’ve had with the car in a long time. Car runs like a dream. It runs better than after those thousands of dollars of work I had to get done on it a few months back.

Dashed to Mashpee to Roche Brothers in my quest for rye flour. I’m making an orange rye bread this weekend, and none of the closer stores have had rye flour. Well, Whole-in-the-Wallet Foods might, but I try not to shop there. I miss the health food store, where I could get a variety of flours.

Ran into a former colleague yesterday at the library, from an unhappy gig, but where she was a saving grace. It was nice to catch up. I finally got her email address, so we can keep in touch. She’s on her way to take a cruise from Amsterdam to Budapest. Good for her!

Some work at the library, then cleaning the house, then putting up the exterior Halloween decorations, then writing. And writing, writing, writing all weekend.

Have a great one! It’s supposed to be lovely here. Rumor is, it snowed in Maine.

I cancelled out of the networking event this morning, because I’m in no shape to make a good impression.

Work with the client yesterday was fine, and then I came home, exhausted.

I wrote 7 pages in longhand on INNATE POWER, a new fantasy novel that tugs at me (I wrote the outline on Monday, I believe, while I was home sick).

Today’s plans are to write a few pages on INNATE POWER, at least a chapter on the latest draft of BALTHAZAAR TREASURE, at least once scene on the anti-gun violence play, a few blog posts, and some LOIs.

I need to get back to decorating, too. The boxes are stacked all over the place; they need to be emptied and the contents put where they need to go.

This weekend, I plan to dig into the writing, the decorating, and write the overseas holiday cards.

As soon as I’m not sick, I’ll start the holiday baking, because baking when I’m sick would be eww.

Navigating a new friendship with someone very different from me, and we have to learn to communicate on the same plane. On some levels, we understand each other very well; on others, not at all. Mercury in retrograde doesn’t help, either. Patience and caution are key. This person is serving as a muse on several projects, and that gets tricky. Some people like it; some feel used. But the truth is, if you know me on any level, you will be absorbed into the work somehow.

Working on my GDRS for next year, and looking at my list for this month and next month. I wish I didn’t feel such an overwhelming exhaustion, which is worsened by the administrative corruption in DC.

But the next few days are about the writing, so it’s back to the page.

The topic of today’s Upbeat Authors post, ahead of Valentine’s Day, is love.

While plenty of people bemoan the commercialization of the holiday, there’s more to it to that IF YOU CHOOSE TO DO IT.

I remember, when I was working my way up in theatre, from church basement shows to Broadway, what a big deal Valentine’s Day became. If you were dating someone, there were all these expectations, on both sides. It was a day to prove and to define the relationship. It was also a day of fear – what if the acknowledgement was out of balance with the recipient’s feelings? Those not in a relationship were either depressed or desperate (plenty of one-night stands on Valentine’s Day).

So a bunch of us who didn’t want to be bound or defined by expectations decided to do something different.

We decided that one should celebrate one’s loving relationship by the strength of daily actions. And that Valentine’s Day should be about celebrating the relationships that don’t often get celebrated, such as friendships, strong relationships with co-workers, etc. We would give each other funny little gifts or candy, and go out as a big group to celebrate EACH OTHER. It wasn’t focused on couples, although couples were included; it was about all of us being glad we were in each other’s lives, and taking note of it to celebrate, to make sure we weren’t taking each other for granted.

Were there still some of the relationship pressures? Of course.

But love takes many forms – romantic love, family love, strong and loyal friendships, even some work relationships that aren’t quite friendship, but are deeper and more complicated than “just business.” All of those deserve celebration.

We also worked for inclusion – we wanted to make sure no one felt alone. Working in theatre, that tends to happen anyway. We are a tight group and look after our own, even if we don’t always get along every moment of every day. Most of us were the outsiders growing up, or in the communities into which we were born; so the artistic community we CHOOSE does not shun people for being artistic, intelligent, or different. We BUILD our families.

That’s the big difference between living someplace like New York or San Francisco or Chicago of wherever, and living in a more isolated community (that the right mistakenly calls “real America.” Cities are just as “real” as any other community). In cities, people choose their families and their communities. Literature, especially some of the genre-focused category literature, claims that cities are impersonal and cruel. My experience has been quite the opposite. Rural communities are often stuck with those too afraid to leave; cities are built by those who choose to be there. Living in cities, we fantasize about moving out to a smaller community for a “quiet” life. The reality rarely measures up to the fantasy. It’s hard to find that balance. It’s hard to move from a place where you choose your tribe to a place that defined the tribe by place and birth years before you got there and continues to do things “the way they’ve always been done” rather than balancing a respect for tradition with the need for evolution.

So, this coming Valentine’s Day, take a minute to let the people in your life know they matter. And offer a hand of friendship or at least understanding to someone who needs it. The positive results will surprise you.

From a landlocked country to an open sea view — and, more importantly, fresh sea air after a week of being in a place where 99.9% of the people around you are chain smokers.

I’m headed to the Cape today. On today’s agenda is The National Marine Life Rescue Center, hopefully checking into a hotel in Sandwich, and buying some fabric in Hyannis. I’m sure I’ll stop at the bookstores while I’m there.

And then, a no doubt early dinner at the Beehive Tavern, since I’m still ridiculously jet lagged.

I miss my father’s best friend, a history and linguistics professor who taught for decades at McGill University in Montreal. He was my father’s best man at my parents’ wedding in Montreal in 1952, and he and my father used to go out drinking. He spoke 7 or 8 languages, and had a wonderful personality, Even as a small child, I adored him, and he always was generous and humorous with me. I remember almost everything he told me, so I can only imagine how great he was with his students.

He was from Yugoslavia, and had fought in the Resistance. He was very politically aware and adept, and had a large circle of European ex-pat friends around him in Montreal.

He would have been a wonderful resource, both before the trip and after, helping process it.

I always thought he died of cancer. I was stunned when my mom corrected me– he committed suicide, slitting his wrists in the tub one day while his wife was at the market.

Twitter Updates

Pages

NMLC’s Mermaid Ball

Devon’s Random Newsletter

To get Devon's Random Newsletter, send an email to devonsrandomnewsletter at gmail dot com with "Subscribe" in the header.

Devon’s Bookstore

GWEN FINNEGAN MYSTERIES

Archaeologist Dr. Gwen Finnegan is on the hunt for her lover’s killer. Shy historical researcher Justin Yates, frustrated with his failing relationship, jumps at the chance to join her on a real adventure through Europe, pursued by factions including Gwen’s ex-lover and nemesis, Karl, as they try to unspool fact from fiction in a multi-generational obsession with a statue of the goddess Medusa.
Buy links here.

Stuck in NYC when plans for their next expedition fall through, Gwen and Justin accept teaching jobs at different local universities. Adjusting to their day-to-day relationship, and juggling the academic and emotional demands of their students, they are embroiled in two different, disturbing, paranormal situations that have more than one unusual crossing point. Can they work together to find the answers? Or are new temptations too much to resist? For whom are they willing to put their lives on the line? Available on multiple digital channels here.

NAUTICAL NAMASTE MYSTERIES

SAVASANA AT SEA

Yoga instructor Sophie Batchelder jumps at the chance to teach on a cruise ship when she loses her job and her boyfriend dumps her in the same day. But when her boss is murdered, and the crew thinks she's taking over her predecessor's blackmail scheme, Sophie must figure out who the real killer is -- before he turns her into a corpse, too. A Not-Quite-Cozy Mystery.
Buy Links here.

COVENTINA CIRCLE ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

PLAYING THE ANGLES
Witchcraft, politics, and theatre collide as Morag D’Anneville and Secret Service agent Simon Keane fight to protect the Vice President of the United States -- or is it Morag who needs Simon’s protection more than the VP?
Buy links here.

THE SPIRIT REPOSITORY
Bonnie Chencko knows books change lives. But she never expected her life to change because she happened to duck into a small bookshop in Greenwich Village on a rainy late November night. She’s attracted to Rufus Van Dijk, the mysterious man who owns the bookshop in his ancestors’ building. A building filled with family ghosts, who are mysteriously disappearing. It’s up to Bonnie and her burgeoning Craft powers to rescue the spirits before their souls are lost forever. Buy Links here.

RELICS & REQUIEM
Amanda Breck’s complicated life gets more convoluted when she finds the body of Lena Morgan in Central Park, identical to Amanda’s dream. Detective Phineas Regan is one case away from retirement; the last thing he needs is a murder case tinged by the occult. The seeds of their attraction were planted months ago, when Phineas investigated an attack on Amanda’s friend Morag. Now, fate is determined to draw them close. But can they work together to stop a wily, vicious killer, or will the murderer destroy them both?
Buy link here.

THE JAIN LAZARUS ADVENTURES

Hex Breaker by Devon Ellington. A Jain Lazarus Adventure. Hex Breaker Jain Lazarus joins the crew of a cursed film, teaming with tough, practical Detective Wyatt East on an adventure fighting zombies, ceremonial magicians, the town wife-beater, the messenger of the gods, and their own pasts.
This series will re-release in 2020.
Visit the site for the Jain Lazarus adventures.</a

Full Circle: An Ars Concordia Anthology. Edited by Colin Galbraith. My story is “Pauvre Bob”, set at Arlington Race Track in Illinois is included in this wonderful collection of short stories and poetry. You can download it free here.